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Capitalizing on the Past

A man who won $13,000 in Las Vegas told police that brothers Christopher Robert Bendotti, 30, and Joseph Charles Bendotti, 27, lured him to a motel in Phoenix, Ariz., and tried to rob him. While Christopher was pistol-whipping the victim, he accidentally shot himself in the hand, dropped the weapon and fled. Joseph grabbed the gun and demanded the victim's winnings, but the victim chased him away. Police arrested the brothers and declared that Christopher was a flight risk because he has access to a large trust fund. (The Arizona Republic)

• Roger Beasley Jr., 30, abandoned his car at a routine traffic stop in Biloxi, Miss., but didn't get far because he ran into a building where police-academy training was under way. Police Chief John Miller said Beasley was quickly arrested on multiple charges. (Biloxi's The Sun Herald)

Capitalizing on the Past

AOL reported that it still has 2.4 million dial-up Internet subscribers, paying an average of $20.86 a month. The company said its dial-up business costs little to operate, so 70 percent of its revenue is profit, amounting to $138 million in this year's first quarter, compared with $122 million total for the company. (Mashable.com)

When Guns Are Outlawed

State police charged Stacy Varner, 47, and Glenda Snyder, 64, with attacking each other with a stuffed deer head during an argument in Cromwell Township, Pa. Troopers said Snyder was injured during the fight when she was hit with an antler. (Harrisburg's The Patriot-News)

• A police officer in Seattle stopped a one-legged man who was attacking a two-legged man with his prosthetic limb. The two-legged man started walking away when a third man, undeterred by the officer's presence, clobbered him over the head with an aluminum baseball bat and fled, but was arrested. (Seattle's KOMO-TV)

• Babanto Chauke, 38, died during an argument with two men, according to police in South Africa's Limpopo province, after he was "hit very badly by oranges," police Lt. Col. Moatshe Ngoepe said. "They started pelting the deceased with all those loose oranges, killing him on the spot." (Associated Press)

Ensurance Policy

Since March 2013, U.S. taxpayers have paid roughly $300,000 to provide 161,352 cans of liquid nutritional supplements, including $142,345 worth of vanilla Ensure, for hunger-striking terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. The government purchases were made while military officials denied claims by the detainees' attorneys that a mass hunger strike was underway. (Vice News)

Slightest Provocation

William Earl Cunningham, 63, slashed another man's throat, according to police in Billings, Mont., who charged him with homicide after he told them he and the victim had been arguing whether the Army or Marines is the best branch of the military. (Billings Gazette)

• A woman told sheriff's deputies in Monroe County, Fla., that boyfriend Carlos Miguel Gascon, 27, choked her, poured coffee on her, cut the back of her leg with a knife, threatened to kill her while holding a knife to her throat, picked her up and slammed her down on a glass table, and then picked up his dog, slammed it to the ground and stepped on its neck. Sheriff's official Becky Herrin said the victim reported that Gascon "was angry at her because he had a dream she was cheating on him." (Miami Herald)

College Debt Never Forgets

Older Americans applying for Social Security benefits risk having some of that retirement income withheld to repay college student loans dating back as long ago as four decades. Eldercare lawyers say lingering student debt is part of a devastating accumulation of debt among older Americans, and government debt collectors have the power to garnish Social Security income, block benefits and withhold tax rebates. Particularly vulnerable are people who borrowed for a college education that did not lead to high-income jobs. People 50 and older hold only 17 percent of all U.S. student debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but this group has nearly three times the debt it had in 2005. The numbers don't distinguish between older American who financed their own educations and those who borrowed to put their children through college. (Business Week)

Second-Amendment Follies

Travelers continue showing up at U.S. airport security checkpoints with guns. The Transportation Security Administration said the number of passengers trying to bring guns onto planes in their carry-on bags rose from 976 in 2009 to 1,813 last year. Eighty-four percent of the guns were loaded. TSA agents caught the most gun-toting travelers, 111, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport. "More than a dozen years after 9/11, you'd think people's awareness would be raised," TSA official Lisa Farbstein said. "But they continue to bring firearms and weapons to checkpoints every day. The numbers just keep going up." (The Boston Globe)

• A 60-year-old Pennsylvania man died after an automobile hit his motorcycle in Black Hawk, Colo. Police said the collision caused a handgun the motorcyclist was carrying to fire, shooting him in the chest. (Denver's KMGH-TV)

• State police charged golfers Roger Lee Harris, 63, and Bryan Bandes, 42, with assault after they came to blows at a course near Uniontown, Pa., during an argument about rules involving "casual water" (puddles) on the course following a brief shower. Trooper George Mrosko reported that Bandes suffered a mild concussion after Harris hit him "in the left forearm and the top of the head" with a 3-wood. (Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV)

• Authorities charged Allen M. Hall, 23, with trying to kill his 49-year-old female roommate by strangling her in the bathtub of their home in Decatur, Ill., after he learned she had eaten three Chips Ahoy cookies for breakfast that he wanted for himself. According to the police report, Hill "strangled her to the point she could not speak and was having difficulty breathing" before the victim's husband and landlady arrived and "had to pull Allen off of her." (Decatur's The Herald & Review)

About The Author

More by Roland Sweet

Canada's National Defence decided to decommission a 45-year-old navy supply ship without a replacement because mechanics in Halifax were spending a "disproportionate amount of time" keeping the vessel operating ...

The federal Medicare Fraud Strike Force concluded a nationwide investigation into home health-care fraud by charging 243 people, including 46 doctors and other medical professionals.

Latest in News Quirks

Canada's National Defence decided to decommission a 45-year-old navy supply ship without a replacement because mechanics in Halifax were spending a "disproportionate amount of time" keeping the vessel operating ...